Virender Sehwag retired as one of India’s all-time greats, a batter who redefined the role of a Test opener with his fearless approach. He wasn’t the one who needed to switch his game to suit different formats – Sehwag, in his inimitable style, would just watch the ball and hit it and with unreal consistency.
Sehwag went on to play 104 Tests and scored 23 centuries aside from 32 fifties as well. His 8586 runs came at a stunning strike-rate of 82.23 and then there was a small matter of him hitting two triple-centuries as well.
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That he stood out in an era when Indian batting was loaded with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman is an achievement in itself.
That no India opener has come close to achieving the level of success as Sehwag enjoyed since his retirement speaks volumes of the impact he made and the giant hole that he left which the team still is struggling to fill.
Among the various candidates for the opener’s slot whom India tried with some success included Murali Vijay who also batted alongside Sehwag.
Vijay has played 61 Tests so far and scored 3982 runs in them including 12 centuries and 15 fifties.
At 38, it’s highly unlikely he will ever represent India again and the veteran laments that he never got the freedom and backing Sehwag got during his career.
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“Consciously, I didn’t get the freedom of Virender Sehwag to be honest,” Vijay told Sportstar. “Whatever Sehwag got in his life, I didn’t. If I could have got that kind of backing and open-spreaded talks, I could have also tried. The honest thing is the team’s backing and how you can contribute to the team in international level. It’s a high-level competition and you don’t have many chances to experiment different ways.”
Vijay though knew Sehwag was a special talent having witnessed his destructive capabilities from the none-striker’s end himself.
“You’ve got to be consistent so you’ve got to have everything as a package and how you’re going to mould yourself to the team’s demand. When Sehwag was there, I felt controlling my instincts and playing was hard but to see him go through that kind of freedom was something spectacular,” he said
“Only he could have done that. Nobody else I feel could have played like Sehwag. What he did for Indian cricket was amazing. Different… he is something else which I have seen visually. I had the privilege to interact with him. It was so simple. He kept his mantra so simple – See the ball and hit. He was in that mode; singing songs to 145-150 kph bowlers. You are experiencing something else. It’s not normal,” Vijay added.
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